The walk up to the LouFest's gates -- austere and reminiscent of the devices used to bottle up manic thoroughbreds before the race -- was dotted with satellite festival-goers with salt and pepper manes and swollen coolers.

After a show in Des Moines, Ia., Kyle Henderson, 24-year-old front man of indie-rock how to write a personal essay
band Desert Noises, tries to wake up for his 2 p.m. interview with some late afternoon breakfast in his hotel. It wasn't for another few hours that he and the gang would have to be in Lincoln, Neb. for the next gig at the Bourbon Theatre, so there was no rush.

Legend has it that Fitz and the Tantrums formed around an organ -- band leader Michael "Fitz" Fitzpatrick's Conn electronic organ to be precise. Keyboardist Jeremy Ruzumna, who has been with the band from the start, took that organ-driven sound and ran with it.